Ambassodor Gonsalves to lead UN financial team

UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK: – Ambassador Camillo M. Gonsalves is now a pivotal figure at the centre of the United Nations’ response to the international financial crisis. The Permanent Representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations has been named as one of two facilitators to lead the negotiating process among member states in the lead-up to a major UN summit in June.{{more}}

The Summit, called the “United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development,” will be held at the UN headquarters in New York from June 1-3, 2009. Heads of State and Government from around the world are expected to attend.

After contentious negotiations among developed and developing nations stalled without agreement on even the most basic arrangements for the summit, the President of the UN General Assembly, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, decided to appoint two facilitators to reinvigorate the process. Citing a need for balance, President Brockmann named one facilitator from the developed world and one facilitator from the developing world. Ambassador Gonsalves and Ambassador Frank Majoor of the Netherlands were chosen.

Speaking at a special meeting to announce the appointments to the General Assembly, President Brockmann said: “I am pleased to announce today that two distinguished colleagues have agreed to serve as co-facilitators to assist the Members in completing the modalities, and to work with me in the preparation of the draft outcome text, and then to facilitate the intergovernmental negotiating process.”

“I hope the Members of the General Assembly will join me in thanking H.E. Mr. Camillo Gonsalves, Permanent Representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and H.E. Mr. Frank Majoor, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands for agreeing to take on this important responsibility,” he said.

The co-facilitators immediately went to work, convening several marathon negotiating sessions, at which they hammered-out an agreed framework for the June Conference. They are now presiding over multiple meetings per week as the UN Member States grapple with methods to deal with the financial and economic crisis, particularly its impact on the world’s poor.

After hearing all views from the Member States, Ambassadors Gonsalves and Majoor will collaborate with the UN President on a draft document that will be adopted by world leaders at the June summit.

The summit follows on the heels of the G20 Summit in London, at which 20 of the world’s most powerful countries met to address the devastating global impact of the financial crisis. United Nations Member States that were excluded from the G20 summit, and those that sought more comprehensive focus on the world’s poor, have hailed the upcoming conference as a “G-192 Summit” – referring to the 192 members of the United Nations.

Ambassador Gonsalves thanked the President of the General Assembly for the honour of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines being chosen as one of only two countries to lead the United Nations’ global political response to the catastrophic and far-reaching crisis.

For more information, contact the Permanent Mission of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations, or visit our website at www.svg-un.org